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News. April 2012

Small Business Development in Local Communities Program

The model communities selected for this Program include Luzhsky, Tosnovsky and Gatchinsky raions in Leningradskaya Oblast; Sasovsky and Kasimovsky raions in Ryazan Oblast and 5 raions in Moscow Oblast with a center in Kolomensky raion.

Mini-grant contests for starting a small business were held among local first-time entrepreneurs and unemployed citizens. The applicants presented their business-plans for the contest developed in the course of trainings they had attended under the Program. A total of 15 projects were approved and grantees were awarded mini-grants from 50,000 to 150,000 rubles. In Ryazan Oblast, the winner projects involved developing children’s education centers and agriculture (a goose farm). In Leningradskaya Oblast, funding was provided to projects to upgrade the public services sphere, including home nursing of handicapped, and the development of tourism and farms. In Moscow Oblast, these were projects of processing used tires and developing a private bee farm.

In March 2012, projects that have received funding under the Citi Foundation Program have completed most of their planned activities. The growth of profits of private entrepreneurs participating in the Program depends largely on the type of their work. For instance, it is currently impossible to estimate the profit of the cattle breeding project that is being fulfilled in Luzhsky raion since it is difficult to predict the survival rate of acquired calves. In another project, the Children’s Hobby Center in Sasovsky raion in Ryazan Oblast, by the end of the project profit grew by 500%, because five times more children  have begun attending it.

A poll conducted in March 2012 among the attendees of Program trainings 6 months after they had taken place showed that nearly 40% of them have opened a business of their own and have created over 100 new jobs. Nearly 20% the attendees have received funding for their business-plans either from the Small Business Support Government Program or from the Citi Foundation Program.

In Sasovsky Raion in Ryazan Oblast a project of organizing after-school activities for local children is being carried out. Private entrepreneur Olesya Sutyagina, who took part in small business development training under the Program, had developed a business plan for setting up a Dragonfly Game Room. Her project was presented for the grant contest and was awarded funding from the Citi Foundation Program. For the game room she had acquired modern game complexes, which attract large numbers of children to it. Arranging children’s parties has become another area of the Center’s activities. After the end of the project the staff of the Center began working 100% of their time instead of only 20% as before. As a result, the modern Children’s Hobby Center has appeared for the first time in Sasovsky Raion.

At the Dragonfly Game Room in Sasovo, Ryazan Oblast

In Luzhsky Raion, Leningradskaya Oblast, the development of Sergei Smirnov’s farm is being supported by the Citi Foundation Program. The cattle-breeding component is expanding and the calves acquired under the project are growing quickly